Benchtop Bench with Moxon Vise

I have a project coming up that will include a lot of dovetails that I plan on doing by hand (just cuz). Having seen several successful Moxon vise projects here on LJ’s, particularly Tinnocker's version from a Fine Woodworking article, I decided to give it a go. Many thanks to Tinnocker – I borrowed several of his ideas including the inset washers, cotter pins for returning the front face when opening the vise, and finally the excellent idea to use standard pipe tee’s for the handles.

The whole project is made from Red Oak, with the exception of the benchtop, which is doubled 3/4” Oak veneered plywood. The vise faces are made from 3/4” boards that I glued together to approximate 2×4s.

The screws are made from 3/4” threaded rod from big box store, and the handle tee’s are 3/4×3/4×1/2 galvanized pipe tee’s. All in, I have about $50 in materials for he project.

A breakdown of the pics:

The first two pics are of the benchtop bench and vise in use. The third pic is of the rear face of the vise before gluing the boards together, with a drilled / chiseled recess for the 3/4” nut.The 4th pic is of the up-rights, with tenons – this was my first mortise and tenon project.The 5th pic is the cotter pin through the threaded rod to trap the vise face when opening.The 6th pic is of the tee and handle – I drilled a 1/4” hole through the tee and threaded rod, using a 1/4” roll pin to keep everything locked together. The handles are 3/4” Oak dowel, with Walnut caps that I turned on the lathe.

The finished product turned out to be very solid. My only complaint is that my tenon shoulders could have been a bit more flush. Thanks very much for looking!

@SirFatty – if you look at the 3rd pic, you can see where the rear face of the vise is made from two boards – I drilled / chiseled a slot to capture the nut for the rods, then glued the two boards together, with the nut securely in the middle. As for the the wood in the holes of the front vise face, the hole is actually a bit larger than the 3/4” rod, and the washers have 3/4” holes, so the rod rests lightly on the washers. I keep a little bit of lithium grease there to prevent friction. It works pretty well.